JERUSALEM, 3 May 2004 — Exit polls conducted by TV stations indicated yesterday that the ruling Likud party overwhelmingly rejected Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s proposal to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and four small West Bank settlements.

The telephone polls, conducted by Israel’s three main TV stations, gave opponents a large lead of between 12 and 24 percentage points.

A survey by Channel 2 had the smallest lead for opponents, with 56 percent against the plan and 44 percent in favor. On Channel 10, the poll indicated 58 had voted against and 42 percent in favor.

The greatest gap was given by Channel 1, with 62 percent against and 38 percent in favor.

Turnout was low. Apparently, fewer than half of the 193,000 Likud members had voted. Analysts said the “no” vote was boosted by a Palestinian shooting attack in Gaza earlier yesterday, in which a pregnant settler and her four daughters were killed.

The rejection by his own party of the plan he spent most of the past several months promoting is one of the most serious setbacks Sharon has suffered since taking office as prime minister in March 2001.

The centerpiece of Sharon’s US-backed “disengagement” plan is a withdrawal of most troops and the removal of all 21 Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip.

Most of the ballots were cast after two Palestinian gunmen shot a pregnant woman from the Gaza Strip settlement bloc of Gush Katif and her four daughters.

The worst attack on settlers in months prompted a raid by Israeli helicopters on a Gaza City radio station with links to Hamas that caused no deaths.

Both the plan’s supporters and opponents saw yesterday’s shooting as fueling their respective arguments.

Sharon has stressed that Israelis needed to realize that the whole of biblical Palestine could not be under Israeli control without incurring a huge human, financial and political cost.

But settlers and members of the nationalist right-wing have accused Sharon — the architect of Israel’s settlement policy over decades — of “letting his children down”.

The premier issued a statement saying the attack strengthened his determination to press on with a withdrawal from Gaza, while the settlers’ main governing body warned the voters that accepting the plan would be tantamount to rewarding “terrorism”.

Meanwhile, four Palestinians were killed yesterday in an Israeli air raid in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, security sources on both sides said.

Israeli helicopters fired four missiles at a high-rise building housing a Hamas radio station, injuring seven Palestinians.

The missiles, which hit the top corner of the 14-story building near the radio station’s offices, caved in part of the roof and cut off electricity to the building. The roof’s red tiles were blown off and smoke rose through the exposed rafters. Screaming women stood on the balconies.

The building in the upscale Rimal neighborhood is also home to the two main Palestinian newspapers Al-Ayyam and Al-Quds.

After the first missile hit, the building shook and glass started flying everywhere, said Fathi Sabbah, an editor at Al-Ayyam.

“Everybody was trying to get out ... but then they hit the building again. Glass flew everywhere, and the building shook,” he said.

“The blasts were very powerful,” said Moin Saraj, 35, a journalist at Al-Ayyam.

Seven people were hurt by shrapnel and glass shards.

The two missiles were fired about 50 seconds apart, giving people time to flee. People ran in panic through the streets after the attack.

The airstrike followed the attack by Palestinian gunmen on a white station wagon as it was driving out of Gaza. The attack — in which the two gunmen were also killed — killed the woman and her four daughters. The Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees, an umbrella group, claimed responsibility.

— Additional input from agencies